Pokwang

Posted by cool_ambo on January 29th, 2010 | Comments Off on from the UN Foundation Team

Dear friend,Last night during the State of the Union address, we heard President Obama say once again that international cooperation needs to be the bedrock of effective American foreign policy.

In the past year, we have seen the United States move in the right direction by engaging with our global partners, including a renewed commitment to the United Nations. By paying our dues, working diligently in the United Nations Security Council, taking a seat on the Human Rights Council, and reengaging in UN-sponsored climate negotiations, we have shown the world that we are serious about international engagement.

Take Haiti, for example. In an immediate response to the earthquake’s devastation, UN agencies are working hand-in-hand with the U.S. on relief and recovery efforts on the ground. This mission highlights the importance of UN aid and peacekeeping operations around the world.

Though we’re only one month into 2010, you’ve already shown an unbelievable outpouring of support for the UN’s work. And it will take all of us — governments, international organizations, and citizens like you — to keep that momentum going.

Posted by cool_ambo on January 28th, 2010 | Comments Off on Of Teachers and Automation

Automation, as the very name implies, cuts down the time, money and effort spent for specific chores. Why then do teachers dread this very word especially, but more especially, if they have to get on with it untrained come election time.

I don’t think teachers have the phobia of computers. I don’t think they fear the keyboard. I don’t think they fear errors they will make in handling computers. I don’t think they are frightened of the pandora they are going to let out by a mere touch of a key. I don’t think they are afraid of making mistakes. I believe that they are afraid of not being able to correct the mistakes that they are bound to make.

Teachers are trained to teach the correct and rightful things so much so that they wouldn’t be able to correct any mistake they make in teaching. These are only a very few mistakes to say the most. Therefore they will be unable to correct mistakes that they might make in this election equipment, or so they think.

Then again they might not have gone through this sort of computer training before. This is a hands-on training in which they are taught to handle the keyboard in the correct manner and at the same time make corrections as they go along. They will learn the functions of the backspace, then scratch head, escape, then scratch back,delete, then drink more coffee, reboot, then finally to go to the bathroom to scream and pull on hair. This would be all in fun, particularly at that time when just about everybody has gone baldheaded.

All kidding aside, training on this equipment would take only half an hour. The rest of the day would be consumed in the familiarizing with the equipment, comelec procedures, bonding with the equipment, and consuming the baon in case Comelec is scroogy enough not to provide the teachers with free lunch.

The polling equipment is basically a counting equipment. The same results could of course be accomplished if everybody is provided a computer wherein he can go online and select their candidates to stick a vote on. It would be more convenient, however, for everybody concerned if a ballot is provided uniquely for each voter and let them shade out the circles corresponding to their chosen candidates. This ballot is then fed to a scanner which simultaneously reads and tallies the votes. This method would be as simple as selecting your numbers in a lottery card and having this card read by a terminal in some store. The ballot is considerably larger than a lottery entry card, of course. Why? Because the ballot has to have the names of the candidates on it in large print instead of mere numbers in a lotto card. And, as in a lotto card, the vote is tallied according to the position the shaded choice is in. The ballot scanner will tally the votes as regards to the position in the ballot the vote is shaded. This is why the ballot is rolled in for reading by the scanner.

And the teachers’ role in this election? Much of the work of the teacher is done by the equipment. And these are namely: counting the votes in the middle of the night, sorting out spoiled ballots, bundling these ballots and bringing these manually to the comelec receiving stations, reporting to the comelec the results of the precint, and also some voter validation procedures.

The bulk of the teachers’ work in this election would be the validation of the voters and the handing out of the ballot to each one, instructing them what to do as the ballot is handed over. The completed ballot would then be scanned by the voter under the teachers’ careful supervision. If a receipt of the votes are printed out, then the teachers check this and gives this receipt to the voter. Easy as swallowing a long-tailed puto bumbong, no?

Standard election procedures would include having copies of eligible voters’ names , tacked on a wall by the precint door. These names would serve as the first voter screening for the precint. It also serves as an instruction as to which desk or counter the voter would go. The teacher on that desk or counter would then proceed to validate the identity of the voter and hand him the ballot. Simple, isn’t it? It would be as easy as swallowing a………I think I said that already.

At any rate, this election procedure would not take the whole day for the teachers to learn. It might take a lunch and several free snacks to finish, though.

If the teachers could still not learn the procedure within that time, they could of course ask for more time and more lunch and snacks at another training day.

(Note that the above procedure is what I know and is proven to work for a lot of elections held elsewhere. The COMELEC may have a different and as-yet-unknown procedure. Do follow what the commissioners tell you to do. It can’t be that much different!)

one could almost believe that she has a crush on Manny! :lol:

Posted by cool_ambo on January 23rd, 2010 | Comments Off on 12-inch wish

A man walks into a bar with a paper bag. He sits down and
places the bag on the counter. The bartender walks up
and asks what’s in the bag.

The man reaches into the bag and pulls out a little man, about
one foot high and sets him on the counter. He reaches back
into the bag and pulls out a small piano, setting it on the counter
as well. He reaches into the bag once again and pulls out a tiny piano bench, which he places in front of the piano.

The little man sits down at the piano and starts playing a
beautiful piece by Mozart! “Where on earth did you get that?” says the bartender.

The man responds by reaching into the paper bag. This time he pulls out a magic lamp. He hands it to the bartender and says: “Here. Rub it.”

So the bartender rubs the lamp, and suddenly there’s a gust of smoke and a beautiful genie is standing before him. “I will grant you one wish. Just ! one wish~~ each person is only allowed one!”

The bartender gets real excited. Without hesitating he says, “I want a million bucks!” A few moments later, a duck walks into
the bar. It is soon followed by another duck, then another.
pretty soon, the entire bar is filled with ducks
and they keep coming!

The bartender turns to the man and says, “Y’know, I think
your genie’s a little deaf. I asked for a million bucks,
not a million ducks.”

“Tell me about it!!” says the man,
“do you really think I asked for a 12 inch pianist? I asked for a 12-inch something else!

Posted by cool_ambo on January 23rd, 2010 | Comments Off on Wanted: Judge Roy Bean

Him’s wot we need around here—! he’s the Law West of the Pecos. Can’t say much about his brand of justice, ‘cepting it was swift as smoke from the barrel of a gun. This Jedge held court in a saloon in a county of Texas, but his executions were shore ’nuff satisfactory for the townsfolk, and he shore ’nuff kept the peace in that part of the west. No complaints from nobody was received since nobody was left to complain! Jedge Roy Bean– no justice denied here, no verdicts delayed!

(surf the internet for Judge Roy Bean titles. Wikepedia presents the best writeup on the Jedge!)

Check This Out—-

Posted by cool_ambo on January 21st, 2010 | Comments Off on UP LAW FACULTY STATEMENT

Statement of the UP Law Faculty on the Appointment of the Next Chief Justice

[this is a public statement and may be freely copied and reposted]

Maintain Fealty to the Rule of Law:
Let the Next President to Appoint the Next Chief Justice

Statement of Members of the Faculty
January 18, 2010

Essential to the existence of a democratic republic is its fealty to the Rule of Law. Any attempt to circumvent clear constitutional text must be justified on grounds of absolute necessity. The need to fill in a lacuna in constitutional text through interpretation must be made on the basis of real needs and not imagined scenarios.

We, the members of the UP College of Law Faculty, are of the firm conviction that the incumbent President cannot appoint the next Chief Justice when the present Chief Justice Reynato Puno retires on May 17, 2010. We do not see any reason why the constitutional provision for the President not to issue any “midnight appointment” in the twilight of her term should not be followed.

The President’s appointing power is limited by an express provision in article VII, section 15 of the Constitution, to wit:

Sec. 15. Two months immediately before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his term, a President or Acting President shall not make appointments, except temporary appointments to executive positions when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety.

This provision proscribes any “midnight” appointment made by the incumbent President of the Republic starting from March 10, 2010 to June 30, 2010. This prohibition was conceived to prevent the scandalous actuations of two past administrations whose acts had to be rectified by Supreme Court decisions.

The only exception is to make “temporary appointments” and only for “executive positions”. Even this exception is qualified by the phrase “when continued vacancies… will prejudice public service or endanger public safety.”

The position of Chief Justice is not an executive position. The appointment of a Chief Justice is not a temporary appointment. Whoever is appointed sits until her/his retirement at the age of 70 years old or sooner upon her/his resignation. The retirement of Chief Justice Puno, on the eve of May 17, 2010, is well within the period of the constitutional ban on appointment. The clearest textual reading of the Constitution is that the incumbent President cannot appoint the next chief justice.

It has been suggested that the absence of a Chief Justice might trigger a constitutional crises because it is the Chief Justice that presides over the Presidential Electoral Tribunal and that s/he presides over the entire Supreme Court.

This argument is pure speculation in the light of settled practice that an Acting Chief Justice may be appointed from among the incumbent justices of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court also does not cease to function simply because it has less than fifteen justices.

The appointment of a permanent Chief Justice by the incumbent President causes more concern. She has appointed all 14 of the other justices of the Supreme Court. If the sitting Chief Justice will be her appointee, the maintenance of the independence of the judiciary may be seriously jeopardized.

It is also argued that the Constitution requires that any vacancy in the Supreme Court must be filled within a period of ninety days. This is not clear from the second paragraph of section 9, article VIII of the Constitution. Even assuming but without conceding this to be true, the next President will have until August 15, 2010 or a month and a half to select the next associate justice. A month and a half is also sufficient time to reflect on who can be chosen as the next Chief Justice. All presidential candidates must by now be considering their own choices of who might become Chief Justice. The Chief Justice is traditionally chosen from among the most senior justices of the Supreme Court.

We therefore find no overriding, logical and imminent reason that would require that the plain meaning of the Constitution as ratified by our people be violated. There are more serious repercussions to the rule of law as well as the independence of the judiciary if the Judicial and Bar Council transmits a list of nominees for the Chief Justice and if the incumbent President actually makes an appointment. It is this threatened unconstitutional act that will cause a true constitutional crises.

Thus we, members of the faculty of the UP College of Law,

(1) Urge the Judicial and Bar Council not to transmit the names of the nominees for the position of Chief Justice until after a new President shall have assumed office on June 30, 2010;

(2) call on the incumbent President to exercise restraint for the sake of judicial independence and respect for the Rule of Law and therefore refrain from appointing the next Chief Justice; and

(3) call on our colleagues in various law faculties, law students and our alumni to make their voices be heard on this very important issue.